Chili Peppers take high road with Grammys

December 17, 2006|RICHARD CROMELIN Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD If the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium" fails to win the album of the year award at the Grammy ceremonies in February, don't expect the band to pull a Kanye West and disrupt the winner's acceptance speech. "I think it's really nice that people like our record, but I treasure our relationship with music so much that to take any sort of competition seriously, I don't feel is a healthy thing," Chili Peppers bassist Flea said Dec. 7, reacting to the announcement of the veteran group's six nominations. This kind of showing had been predicted for the Los Angeles rock quartet, whose 22-year career previously generated only seven nominations, none in major categories. The band has taken home just two awards. "It could be that it is an acknowledgment of our history," Flea said of the recognition, speaking by phone on his way to play a concert in Vienna, Austria. "At the same time, I feel like 'Stadium Arcadium' is the most complete record that we've made in terms of realizing who we are and getting the most depth of who we are. So I feel like the record is the best we could have done at that time, and I haven't always felt that way about our records."